News Round-up: July 4 - August 1

Apple has released the Magic Trackpad, a multi-touch trackpad designed for use on desktop computers. It has a size and profile that matches Apple’s most recent keyboards. Priced at US$69, many have labelled the device too expensive, while others wonder if it is the beginning of a paradigm shift away from mouse input. Check out the MacScene forum thread for the community’s take, and see the official product page for more information.

Valve plans to give away some of their code for OpenGL on the Mac in order to accelerate and motivate further development of Mac versions of Steam games. They claim that this will eliminate the “real hard work” in putting games on the Mac.

Apple announced an update to the iMac line, with speed bumps and a move to discrete graphics cards across all models. They also introduced a new Mac Pro line that promises “up to 50 percent greater performance,” and a 27-inch LED Cinema Display, which will replace the existing 24-inch and 30-inch models. The new Mac Pros will be available “in August” while the Cinema Display is set for a September release.

Apple’s Q3 earnings revealed that the Mac is growing in popularity, despite the recent focus on iOS devices. The iPad has already sold more than 3 million units. The iPhone 4 sold over 8 million units despite its much-publicised antenna problems and limited international release.

Emulator updates after the break.

NES emulator and debugger Maciform has been updated to version 0.13. This release features tweaks to the scanline renderer and Blargg’s Nes_snd_emu library. The developer is looking for help with the project, if anyone is interested in contributing. See the official site for more details.

Apple IIGS emulator Sweet16 version 2.2 was released recently, after almost a year without an update. Changes include reduced CPU usage while paused and automatically enabled speed control. See the official site for more information.

MAME has been updated to version 0.139. This release fixes few bugs related to crashing or freezing behaviour, and makes numerous other changes. See the Release Notes for more details.

SpeedofMac has been busily compiling the latest change sets for PlayStation emulator PCSX-Reloaded. The current build (55259) includes newly ported plugins DFCdrom andDFInput, for handling CDs and controller input, respectively. Check out SpeedofMac’s website for the latest build, or the official PCSX-Reloaded website for more details. You can also follow the discussion on MacScene’s PCSX-Reloaded forum thread.

Dapplegrey, a graphical front-end for DOSBox, has been updated to version 2.14. This release fixes a few bugs.

CrossOver and CrossOver Games have both been updated to version 9.1. These releases incorporate the Wine 1.2 update and fix a number of bugs. CrossOver Games now officially supports Star Trek Online, StarCraft 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Alien Swarm. See the announcement for full details on the changes.

Build 9370 has been released for Parallels Desktop 5. The update includes a fix in shared folders behaviour with certain Windows applications and also fixes OpenGL in Ubuntu 10.04 virtual machines. See the release notes for full details.

Got any news tips? Let us know on the forums. I’d also like to know if there’s anything else you’d like me to cover, such as (retro-themed?) game releases, productivity software, or iPhone Apps. Hit up the comments if you have any suggestions or requests.